The invention relates to a motor vehicle configuration system.
Modern motor vehicles may have a plurality of configurations as a function of the detection of the presence of a specific vehicle occupant in the interior of the vehicle. For example, navigation configurations (for example, address book), entertainment configurations (for example, radio stations saved to memory), communication configurations (for example, telephone book) or comfort configurations (for example, air conditioner adjustments and/or seat adjustments) of a motor vehicle can be made as a function of the driver's identity, which can be established in a targeted way, for example, by the use of a certain vehicle key or, as an alternative, also with the assistance of a camera or by means of biometric features.
The object of the invention is to design the configuring of a motor vehicle in an even simpler way or, more specifically, in an even more convenient way.
The motor vehicle configuration system according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention comprises a motor vehicle that is to be configured and a portable device, in particular, a so-called portable CE (consumer electronic) device, in particular, a mobile phone. However, as an alternative, the portable device may also be constructed as a digital camera, a laptop, a vehicle key, a device for playing back multimedia data, etc. The interior of the motor vehicle has at least one transponder (for example, a so-called NFC tag or any other passive transponder that can be recognized or, more particularly, read out by the portable device) and that is capable of wireless near field communication (for example, by means of the transmission standard—near field communication, or also called NFC in short). In addition, the motor vehicle has a receiving unit, which is capable of receiving wirelessly the vehicle configuration data over a wireless communication link that is independent of the wireless near field communication (for example, via Bluetooth or WLAN, Zigbee, mobile radio [GSM, GPRS, UMTS, . . . ] or by means of a proprietary radio link, for example the vehicle key in the UHF range).
The portable device is also capable of wireless near field communication (in particular, “NFC enabled”) and is capable of detecting an approach of the portable device to the transponder by means of near field communication. Furthermore, the portable device has at least one data memory for storing the memory data and a transmitting unit, which is capable of sending wirelessly transmission data on the basis of the memory data, stored in the data memory, by way of a wireless communication link (for example, via Bluetooth) that is independent of the wireless near field communication. The portable device is programmed in such a way that it can transfer the transmission data to the motor vehicle, in order to provide the motor vehicle with vehicle configuration data. The transfer takes place when an approach of the portable device to the transponder is detected on the basis of a wireless near field communication. This transfer takes place over a wireless communication link between the transmitting unit and the receiving unit. This communication link is independent of the wireless near field communication.
The invention makes it possible to create the motor vehicle configurations in a motor vehicle by merely bringing a portable device into close proximity of a transponder in the interior of the motor vehicle. This strategy significantly enhances the comfort of a vehicle occupant.
The transmission data can be designed directly as the motor vehicle configuration data. Then, the motor vehicle sided processing effort is quite small. However, the transmission data may also exhibit a different data format that can be converted into motor vehicle configuration data by a computer unit that is downstream of the receiving unit in the motor vehicle. Under some circumstances this arrangement can reduce the quantity of data to be sent.
Furthermore, the transmission data can be identical to the memory data or, more specifically, identical to an extract of the memory data. Then the processing effort required on the part of the portable device prior to sending is quite small. However, the transmission data may also have a different data format that is not generated by the portable device until before the transmission. This feature permits, for example, the use of one and the same memory data record for configuring different motor vehicles; this feature also allows the respective type of motor vehicle or rather the recognition of an individual motor vehicle (the type of motor vehicle or more specifically the individual motor vehicle identification may be stored, for example, in the transponder or can be assigned by means of an individual identification of the transponder) to be considered, and also permits the motor vehicle specific transmission data to be sent.